


stranger

by sweetwhump



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Demonic Possession, Demons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Violence, YOI Spooky Week, love saves the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 18:56:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21184343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetwhump/pseuds/sweetwhump
Summary: “Y-Yuuri?”“Guess again.”Yuuri finally looks up, and when he does, Victor knows for certain that something has gone very, very wrong. His typically soft features are hard and cruel, his gentle smile replaced by a predatory smirk, and his eyes - oh, god - his beautiful brown eyes have gone pitch black, sclera and all.For the first time ever, Victor looks into his Yuuri’s eyes and feels afraid.“Aaaaand the penny drops.”Or, remember that one time Yuuri got possessed by a squid demon in the festival drama? What if that happened again, but Worse This Time?(for YOI Spooky Week 2019, Day 2)





	stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning: This fic involves demonic possession and scenes of violence. Specifically, a demon possessing Yuuri’s body inflicts physical harm on Victor, including beating and attempted strangulation. Although in-fiction, Yuuri is not in control of his body and is in fact actively working against the demon to protect Victor, I understand that the image may be upsetting or triggering to some. If this is the case, I would encourage you to skip this fic and look at one of the many other wonderful Spooky Week offerings instead. Please take care of yourself first and foremost! <3

“Yuuri,  _ tadaima _ !”

Victor calls out into the apartment as he gently kicks the front door closed behind him and locks it, dumping his bag unceremoniously on the floor. He turns towards the wall to balance himself as he toes off his shoes onto the mat by the door, and is surprised when he feels arms wrap slowly around his waist from behind. 

“ _ Okaeri _ ,” Yuuri purrs, giving him a squeeze before turning him around and wrapping his arms around his neck, pulling him into a slow, sensual kiss. He looks up at Victor with a coy smile when they break apart. “I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, love.” Victor mumbles back. “It’s been a long- mmph-“

The rest of his words are drowned out as Yuuri suddenly seizes him by the front of his shirt, pulling him in close and kissing him, hard. It takes Victor a second to reciprocate, the ferocity catching him off guard, and before he can even wrap his arms around his lover, Yuuri’s tongue is in his mouth and he’s being shoved back against the wall. 

The shelf where they keep their keys digs painfully into Victor’s back and he groans, the sound swallowed by Yuuri’s mouth. It only seems to spur Yuuri on as he bites his lip, hard enough to draw blood. 

On any other day, Victor would be delighted by this unexpected flare of Eros. Indeed, he can’t help but sigh in contentment as Yuuri kisses along his jaw and down his neck. But at the same time, he’s incredibly tired from a long day at the rink, having spent five hours coaching Yuuri this morning and another five working with Yakov on his own programs in the afternoon. As much as he would love to let Yuuri have his way with him, he’s completely drained from the long day at practice and wants nothing more right now than to just cuddle with his fiancé on the couch. 

He tries to tell Yuuri as much between kisses, but his words go ignored as Yuuri leans in close and bites his neck, painfully hard. 

“Yuuri -  _ ow _ , that hurts!”

Yuuri just hums and continues attacking his neck hungrily. He tries to lean away as Yuuri sucks at the bite mark, but his fiancé’s grip is surprisingly strong. Something is definitely not right here. Yuuri is usually very careful about leaving noticeable marks on Victor this close to a competition, even though Victor doesn’t typically mind them at all. 

“Yuuri, love, I’m sorry but I’m not really in the mood right now, please just-“ he tries to move Yuuri’s arms off of him, but as soon as he does, he is shoved back more forcefully against the wall. The dreadful sense of unease intensifies.

“Y-Yuuri?”

“Guess again.”

Yuuri finally looks up, and when he does, Victor knows for certain that something has gone very, very wrong. His typically soft features are hard and cruel. Even in what Victor likes to call his Eros-mode, there is always love and devotion in his eyes. Now there is only a dark, dangerous lust, and beneath that, something deeper, more sinister. 

For the first time ever, Victor looks into his Yuuri’s eyes and feels afraid.

“Aaaaand the penny drops.”

“What-“ Victor doesn’t have time to finish the sentence before the- the  _ thing _ that isn’t Yuuri pushes him back against the wall and swallows his words in a searing, violent parody of a kiss. When it pulls back its eyes have gone pitch black, sclera and all. 

Victor’s blood runs cold at the sight. 

“Oh, look at you,” the thing croons, inches from his face. “You’re so pretty when you’re afraid.”

“Who are you? What have you done to Yuuri?”

The thing laughs, hard and cruel and  _ wrong. _

“I  _ am  _ Yuuri, silly. Don’t you recognize your own fiancé?”

“Stop lying! Who…  _ what _ are you?”

“I have many names. Too many to count. But I suppose you could call me a demon, if you wanted to be reductive.”

“From the festival...?” They’d beaten it once before. If the same demon has a hold of Yuuri now, Victor might have a chance of getting his fiancé back. A glimmer of hope stirs in his chest. 

That is, until the thing laughs again. “You wish. That squid was just a small fry. I’m the real deal.”

Victor’s heart sinks, but he forces himself to keep a brave face. “What have you done to Yuuri?”

“Oh, calm down. He’s in here, with me. Screaming his pathetic head off at the moment.”

If Victor was worried before, he’s terrified now. “What are you… If you’re hurting him, I swear-“

The thing laughs again. “Oh, honey. He’s not screaming on his own behalf, I assure you. He’s begging me to show  _ you _ mercy.”

“What do you mea-  _ ah _ !”

Victor’s words are cut off as the thing seizes him by his jacket and pulls him away from the wall with surprising strength, shoving him deeper into the apartment, away from the door. He has just enough time to register the array of objects spread out on their kitchen counter - a few cooking knives, a hammer, a lighter, a roll of tape - before rough hands are on him again, throwing him bodily to the floor. A dull ache spreads through his hip where it hit the hardwood as he pushes himself back and away from Yuuri’s - no, not Yuuri’s, Yuuri would never smile at him so savagely -  _ the demon’s _ slowly advancing form. 

“He’s screaming… because he knows what I’m about to do to you… and he knows there’s nothing he can do to stop it.”

Victor’s racing heart is in his throat as his back meets the far wall of the living room. He has to do something. If this creature gets his hands on him, he’ll hurt him or worse, and make Yuuri watch. 

But what can he do? If he tries to fight it, there’s a chance he’ll hurt his Yuuri in the process. That’s not an option. If he runs for the front door, makes it outside… there’s no telling what the demon would do. Kill him out in the open? Hurt someone else, an innocent bystander? All while wearing Yuuri’s face? No, Victor can’t risk that, either. 

His eyes flit over the demon’s shoulder. Their bedroom door is ajar on the other side of the room. If he can make it in there, lock himself in the en suite… he still has his phone in his pocket, he can call Georgi, ask him for the help they’d foolishly declined after the first time Yuuri was possessed… maybe, just maybe, the two of them can get out of this relatively unharmed. 

The demon is only a few feet away, still walking slowly forward with that unsettling, sadistic smile that looks so very  _ wrong _ on Yuuri’s features. It’s now or never. Victor has to move.

He pushes off the ground and surges to his feet, gritting his teeth against the ache in his hip as he forces himself to move, to stand, to run for both their lives. He fixes his gaze on the bedroom door and runs - it’s only a few more feet, he’s almost there, he can make it-

And then a bruising grip on his wrist halts his momentum. And then he hits the floor, his legs kicked out from underneath him. And then sheer terror as he’s dragged backwards across the hardwood, his struggles to get away no more effective than a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf. 

“Ah, ah, ah, nice try, Victor,” the demon taunts him. “As much as I love playing with my food before I eat it, it does get bothersome if you keep trying to get away. Let’s fix that, shall we?” 

Before Victor has time to process what is happening, the demon has seized him roughly by the hair, sending pinpricks of pain shooting across his scalp. That pain is soon drowned out, however, when the hand in his hair hauls back and bashes his head into the wall. 

The pain is blinding, and his vision flashes white as the demon releases its grip on his hair and stalks off back towards the kitchen. Victor slumps to the ground even as his brain screams at him to get up, to run, to do  _ something _ . But shock and pain render him immobile, unable to do anything until the demon reappears, one hand behind his back, the other holding up the roll of duct tape. 

“Now…” he says, flipping Victor over onto his stomach, grabbing his arms and wrenching them painfully behind his back. “Let’s have some fun.” 

Heavy dread fills Victor as he hears the sound of tape being ripped off the roll. “What do you want with us?” He stammers, voice low and trembling as the tape is wrapped tight around his wrists. “Why Yuuri? Please, just let him go!” 

“Why Yuuri?” Victor can’t see the demon but he can hear the smile in his voice. “Because he was easy. Already possessed once, such a weak-minded thing, he was practically begging me to take over.”

“Shut up!” Victor growls from where his face is pressed into the floor, struggling against his bonds. “He isn’t weak! He overcame something like you once, he can do it again!”

The demon laughs, hard and cruel. “Ooh, feisty, aren’t we? I like that. Makes things much more entertaining. Now…” The demon muses, flipping him back onto his back and staring down at him with a terrifying, sadistic glee. “Where to start…” 

He retrieves the knife from the floor and runs it teasingly across Victor’s throat with a thoughtful hum. “Mmm… now this would be fun. You humans are so delightfully fragile. Just a flick of the wrist, and darling Yuuri gets a front row seat to watch the life drain from your body.” He applies the tiniest amount of pressure to the blade and Victor tenses with a terrified whimper. The demon chuckles. “Hmm… tempting, but not yet, I think. We wouldn’t want to end things too soon, isn’t that right? Not when there’s so much more fun to be had. No, don’t worry, we’ll save this for the end.” 

The demon lowers the blade from Victor’s throat to his collarbone. Victor shivers at the feeling of the cold steel against his skin, earning a sadistic grin from his tormentor. 

He presses in and Victor can’t help but cry out in pain as the knife pierces his skin in a long, shallow cut. The demon clamps a hand over his mouth and leans in close, his pitch-black eyes filling Victor’s entire field of vision. 

“Ssh, ssh, ssh… do try to keep it down, won’t you, Vitya? We wouldn’t want to alert the neighbours. After all, who knows what could happen if someone were to come snooping? Poor Yuuri might get in a lot of trouble if he were to be found in such a compromising position.” It grins and pulls back, a look of mock thoughtfulness on Yuuri’s face. “Or even worse, he might get startled by the interruption. Accidents do happen, after all, especially while holding such a dangerously sharp object…”

It pulls the blade away from Victor and draws it towards its own throat.  _ Yuuri’s _ throat. 

“No!” Victor begs. The demon raises its eyebrows and the knife and Victor immediately drops his voice to a terrified whisper. “No, no, please, I’ll be quiet, I promise. Hurt me, do anything you want with me, just please don’t touch him.” 

For a split second, something changes in the demon’s face. It twitches strangely, and Victor could swear through his tears that he’d caught a glint of honey-brown in those pitch black eyes. But the moment passes as quickly as it came and the demon is smiling again, twisting Yuuri’s features into a simpering mockery of a lovestruck smile. 

“Oh, how sweet,” it coos, “but I’m afraid you’re in no position to bargain. I’m hurting you no matter what, and as for dear Yuuri here… Well, if it’s any consolation, you won’t be around to see what I do to him.” 

“Please…” he whispers, dissolving into soft, hopeless tears as despair claims him entirely. “Please, just let him go. Please don’t do this…”

The demon shushes him again as he brings the knife back down to Victor’s collarbone. He presses in and Victor turns his face away and bits his lip to stifle his scream into a pained whimper. It decorates his skin in patterns of long, shallow cuts as Victor sobs and begs beneath him, praying to wake up and have this all just be some awful dream. But no such reprieve comes. 

“Such pretty eyes you have,” the demon croons eventually, sitting up and running the knife gently down the side of his face. “He loves your eyes, you know. The way they sparkle in the sunlight, how gorgeously blue they look when you cry. They’d make lovely keepsakes, I think. Something to remember you by after you’re gone…” 

The feeling of the cold tip of the knife against his closed eyelid sends a nauseating wave of panic through him, and he chokes on a sob, pulling at the tape on his wrists. It holds firm.

“Mmm…It wouldn’t do to take both, though,” the demon muses. “After all, it’s no fun if I don’t get to watch the light leave your eyes when precious Yuuri kills you.” Victor tries to twist his head away, but the demon grabs him by the hair and wrenches him back into place, keeping a tight grip so that he can’t move or get away. “But then, I suppose just one wouldn’t hurt.”

The sensation of the knife-tip vanishes from his eyelid, replaced by something warmer and softer that brushes along his lash line, wiping away his tears, and for a bizarre second, Victor feels strangely at peace. The sensation of Yuuri’s thumb gently brushing away his tears is so familiar and comforting that for a second, he almost allows himself to believe that his husband is back, that this was all some sort of nightmare or horrible joke. 

Then the touch turns rough as the demon painfully forces Victor’s eye open. The moment of peace shatters instantly and he is left choking on his own panic as he stares in despair into the cruel, twisted mockery of his lover’s grinning face.

“Now hold still for me Vitya. And remember,” It leans down to whisper in his ear. “If you scream, I’ll slit his throat.” 

Victor bites back a whimper and struggles desperately against his bindings as the blade draws closer to his face. Oh god. This is happening. It’s happening and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. A terrified sob tears itself from his throat, he can feel tears streaming down his face. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening, he’s scared, he’s so afraid,  _ oh god, please god, make it stop make it stop make it- _

“ _ No _ !” 

Before Victor can process what is happening, there is a flash of silver, and then a clatter on the hardwood as the knife is suddenly flung across the room. Strong hands lift him up from the ground and reach around him to undo the tape around his wrists. 

“W-what?” Victor stammers, absolute terror and confusion rendering him all but speechless. 

“Victor, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, sorry...”

Victor can’t see Yuuri’s eyes like this, propped up against his shoulder as the other man works at his bindings, but the voice is enough to tell him what he needs to know. Warm and frantic and concerned, that isn’t the demon’s voice. 

Hope blossoms in Victor’s chest amidst the overwhelming fear and he manages to choke back his tears.

“Yuuri… Yuuri, you did it! I knew you could-“

“No!” Yuuri’s voice is terrified as he finally releases Victor’s hands. “He’s - he’s still in here. I can’t hold him off much longer. You have to get out of here, Victor, you have to run, please, he’s going to kill you!”

“Yuuri… what? No, I’m not going to leave you-“

“You have to! Please, Victor, he wants to hurt you, he wants to-“

“You can fight him, you already have-“

“I can’t! I’m not strong enough,Vitya  _ please _ -“

“If I go, he’ll hurt you-“

_ “I don’t care what he does to me _ !” Yuuri has never shouted at him before, not like this, and it’s enough to freeze the protests in Victor’s throat. “I can’t watch you get hurt anymore! Please, Victor, if you love me, if you’ve ever loved me, please just run. Don’t make me watch him k-kill you!”

Yuuri’s voice breaks on the last two words and tears begin to stream down his face as he desperately pulls Victor up and begins pushing him towards the apartment door. 

“W-we don’t have much time, Vitya, please just go.”

Victor gets his bearings enough to dig his heels in. “No! I’m not leaving you!” 

“Please, you have to, I-“ Yuuri’s words cut off with a sharp gasp and his expression grows even more terrified. “No. No, no, no. He’s… he’s coming back, I can’t stop him, RUN!” 

He shoves Victor hard towards the door, and Victor stumbles forward. He takes a second to catch himself, then turns back just in time to see the love and overwhelming fear in his Yuuri’s eyes fade out, replaced once again by that awful inky blackness. 

It’s that fear that freezes Victor in his tracks, prevents him from making a break for the safety of their bedroom like he’d planned. Seeing the love of his life so terrified as he fought for and lost control of his own body… it snaps something in Victor. 

“Well? Are you going?” the creature asks, that same cruel smile creeping across Yuuri’s face. It grows even wider when Victor makes no move towards the door. “A wise decision. That would have only made things worse for both of you.” 

“What do you want with us?” If the demon notices that Victor’s voice is no longer a terrified whimper but a low growl, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he just smiles that same cruel smile. 

“I want to hurt you,” he says simply. “I’m going to make you suffer in ways you didn’t even know were possible. I’m going to make darling Yuuri watch every second of it, right up until you break, until you beg me for death. I’m going to make sure that he’s aware of every moment as he kills you, slowly and excruciatingly, and that he knows that this was all his fault. And then, after we’ve wrung the last agonized breath from your lungs, I’m going to kill him, too.” 

Victor won’t let this monster hurt his Yuuri. He has to do something.

But what? 

He can’t run, he can’t fight, he can’t call for help. What’s left?

What's left? Well, what’s always left. He can love Yuuri. He can stand here and love his Yuuri. It had been enough to save them once, back at the festival, and even though this demon claims to be more powerful than the first…it’s the only chance they’ve got. 

“Yuuri,” he says, keeping his voice as steady as he can as he slowly backs away, keeping out of arm’s reach of the demon. “I need you to listen to me, okay? Just listen to my voice.”

“He can’t hear you,” the demon protests, too quickly for Victor to believe him. 

“You can fight this, Yuuri, I know you can. Just like before. Remember love, remember our love.”

The demon bares its teeth. “Shut. Up.” 

“Remember Barcelona. That night we went to the Christmas market together. You looked so beautiful that night…”

The creature snarls and moves inhumanly fast, hitting Victor hard enough to send him reeling back several feet. His vision flashes white again and his whole head aches from the force of the blow, but he steadies himself, standing back up to his full height and continuing to speak. “When you put this ring on my finger… I’ve never been happier in my whole life. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with - ah!”

The demon lashes out again, but Victor is expecting it this time. He grabs the hand that swings at him, but instead of pushing it back or fighting against it, he pulls it towards him and gently kisses the gold ring. 

“Yuuri…” he whispers, staring into those black eyes, begging his fiancé to hear him. 

The demon lets out a bellow of rage and throws him across the room with inhuman strength, straight into the large mirror hanging on the wall. The mirror shatters on impact, a million pinpricks of pain erupting on his back and shoulder where they make contact with the shards. He cries out in pain as he crumples to the floor like a rag doll, but keeps speaking.

“Yuuri, it’s okay. You can fight this. You’re so strong, my love, you’re the strongest person I know.”

The demon stalks over to where he lays and pulls him up roughly by the hair. 

“Shut up,” it snarls, as Victor gasps in pain. 

“You can fight it, Yuuri, I know you can. Just like before. Remember our love. Remember Barcelona and Moscow and Beijing. Remember the beach in Hasetsu, the day we spent with Makkachin playing in the water…”

Still gripping him by the hair, the demon pulls him all the way up to his feet and pins him to the wall. 

“I love you, Yuuri.” His eyes begin to water, and it has nothing to do with the physical pain. “I love you. Keep fighting. I love you.”

“SHUT UP!” the demon roars in his face, hits him again, but rather than flinching, Victor looks directly into those black eyes, searching desperately for any sign of his Yuuri. Even as the demon’s hands wrap around his throat and begin to squeeze, Victor doesn’t stop.

“I love you, Yuuri.” he gasps. It’s getting hard to breathe now. “I love you. This isn’t your fault. Fight him. I love you.”

The demon’s grip on his throat grows so tight that he can’t manage words anymore. His vision grows dark and spotty around the edges, but he can’t bring himself to claw at Yuuri’s hands holding him there. He can’t hurt him, not even now. Not even when he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is it. This is the end. 

_ He’s going to die here. _

“Yuuri…” He mouths, tears spilling freely down his face. “I’m sorry… I…”

Everything is fading. His ears are ringing. His lungs ache. He can feel himself slipping away…

_ “Victor…” _

And then an unearthly wail cuts through the air, half-enraged, half-terrified, and a cloud of what looks like black smoke pours out of Yuuri’s mouth, surrounding them. The pressure around Victor’s neck disappears and he crumples limply to the floor, landing hard on his hands and knees in the broken glass. The sharp sting in his palms is nothing compared to the relief he feels at being able to breathe again.

He sucks in breath after desperate breath between violent, hacking coughs. His lungs and his throat ache horribly and he can’t pull in air fast enough.

“Victor? Victor? Oh god…” He’s so caught up in trying to get his breath back that he doesn’t notice until the familiar voice sounds closeby that it’s  _ normal _ again. Loving, concerned, terrified, just like-

“Yu,” he croaks, his throat too raw and achy to form the word. “Yuu….” he’s cut off again with a cough.

“Yes, it’s me… it’s me, it’s just me, Vitya, it’s gone. It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone…” Yuuri’s voice is faint, breathless and tearful, and Victor wants nothing more than to reach out and comfort him, but he’s weak and trembling and his lungs are still too achingly desperate for oxygen to allow him to form words. 

When he finally gains the energy to lift his head and look at his fiancé, he finds Yuuri staring back at him, his face pale and terrified, breathing as heavily as if he’d just run a marathon. 

“You did it, Yuuri.” He chokes out, his entire body sagging with relief. 

Yuuri crawls across the floor to reach him. Victor wants to warn him to be careful of the broken glass, but his throat still aches too much to form words. He holds up a hand instead, hoping to pause Yuuri before he gets a cut to match the dozens littering Victor’s palms and knees and forearms from landing in the shards. 

To his surprise, Yuuri flinches back like he has been burned, tears springing to his eyes. 

“God, I’m so sorry, Victor.” He cries, voice raw with guilt. “I should have realized… I’m so sorry, I’ll stay… I’ll stay right here? I can leave, if you want, I wouldn’t blame you-”

For a second, Victor is confused. Then awful realization sets in and the breath leaves his lungs once more in a pained sigh. 

“No,” he rasps with effort, forcing his leaden hands and knees to move, pushing himself carefully through the shards towards his husband. “No, I only… the mirror, I didn’t want you to… to hurt yourself.” 

Yuuri draws back as Victor approaches, horror etched in every feature. “Victor, no. How can you even think of - I nearly killed you!” 

“That wasn’t you.” Victor counters, reaching out his arms. “Please, Yuuri.” 

If there’s one thing that Yuuri has never been able to deny, it’s Victor’s open arms. The tension doesn’t leave his body, but he stops retreating as Victor closes the gap between them and collapses into Yuuri’s embrace. 

“It’s you,” he breathes into Yuuri’s collarbone, clutching at his shirt and shaking like a leaf in his arms. “It’s really you, thank god…” He lets out a soft sob as Yuuri’s arms close oh-so-gently around him. “I knew you could do it, I knew you could.” 

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri croaks, his own voice strangled and thick with tears. “I’m so sorry, Vitya.” 

“For what?”

Yuuri pulls back, looking at Victor as if he’s crazy, as if he’s grown a second head. “I hurt you. I… I did this.” 

He gestures at Victor’s body, horror and grief etched into every feature, and Victor wonders how he must look. A glance down into one of the larger mirror shards littering the floor shows him everything he needs to know. His lower lip is split and bloody, his right cheekbone bruised and bleeding from the demon’s blows. Various small cuts litter his collarbones, and worst of all, a vivid ring of hand-shaped bruises blooms around his throat.

“You didn’t do any of this, Yuuri.” He says, putting effort into keeping his voice clear and steady so that his husband understands.

“But I did! I didn’t want to, I swear, I tried so hard to stop it, but. But it was still me who did all of that to you. It was-it was my hands that… that tried to…” He breaks off suddenly, overcome, and tries to pull back again, withdrawing his hands from their places around Victor’s back. 

Victor is having none of it, though. He reaches for Yuuri’s hands immediately, ever-so-gently, pulling them back towards him and kissing his ring before slowly bringing them up to his neck. 

Yuuri pales. “Victor, what… what are you doing? Please, don’t-” Eyes wide, he tries to pull his hands back, but Victor maintains his firm but gentle grasp, guiding Yuuri’s hands to settle softly against his neck over the bruises. 

“It’s okay,” he breathes, “It’s okay, Yuuri. I trust you.” He holds them there, running a thumb comfortingly over the back of Yuuri’s knuckles. 

“Victor, no, I… I can’t, I-” he chokes on a sob, his eyes welling up with tears. Hot shame and fear bubble up within him, his hands shaking where they rest against his beloved’s throat. “I’m so sorry!” 

Yuuri shudders, drops his head down against his husband’s chest, and  _ breaks _ , weeping unreservedly in awful gasps and shudders.

“It’s okay, Yuuri.” Victor murmurs, over and over again as his fiancé sobs in his arms. “It wasn’t your fault.”

He lets his hands leave Yuuri’s around his neck, pulling him into a gentle hug and running his fingers through his hair. He rasps out soothing nonsense into Yuuri’s ear, does what he can to ease the unimaginable anguish he’s going through, tormented by the awful almosts and could-have-beens, all the plans the demon had had for them. 

“I was so scared, Vitya.” He gasps out, once the tears have abated enough for him to speak. “I could hear what he wanted to do to you, but I c-couldn’t stop him. It was awful, I’ve never b-been so afraid…”

“I know. I know. I’m so sorry he did that to you, Yuuri.”

Yuuri pulls back a little, wiping at his eyes with the heel of his hand. “How can you be so… so calm? Weren’t you scared?”

“Of course I was.” Victor says. It’s not a lie, and the fact that his hands still haven’t stopped shaking is a testament to that. “But not of you. Never of you.”

Yuuri looks doubtful. 

“I could never be afraid of you, Yuuri. You saved me.”

Yuuri still doesn’t speak, just closes his eyes and turns his head away, his body seeming to curl into itself under the weight of his guilt. 

“Hey. Look at me.” Victor reaches out and gently turns Yuuri’s face toward him. “You saved me. You saved me because you were stronger than that thing.”

He shakes his head. “My weakness- I was an easy target, I let it in, it even said so…”

“It  _ lied _ .” The vehemence in Victor’s voice seems to surprise Yuuri. He blinks, his eyes - mercifully back to their familiar honey brown - wide and bright with tears as he looks up at him. “It lied, Yuuri. You are strong, you’re so, so strong, my love, and that’s why you beat it in the end.”

“ _ We _ beat it.” Yuuri corrects softly. “If you hadn’t said all that, about us… if you hadn’t reached me, I don’t think I would have been able to fight it off. I-I would have just had to watch, while it-” 

“But you did,” Victor reminds him gently, before his mind can wander too far back into dangerous territory. “You did fight it off, and that’s what matters.” 

Yuuri gives a short, jerky nod, finally seeming to accept his words. Relieved, all the energy suddenly leaves Victor’s body and he slumps forward, boneless, as Yuuri pulls him into a tight embrace. 

“Thank you, Yuuri.” He whispers, burying his face in the crook of Yuuri’s neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” 

Yuuri doesn’t acknowledge the gratitude, still most likely convinced that he doesn’t deserve it, but he does hold Victor tight and press apologetic kisses into the top of his head until he stops shaking in his arms. 

They hold on to each other a while longer, anchoring one another as they work through the terror of what had happened, of how much worse it could have been. 

“We should…” Victor finally sighs, looking around at the state of the apartment over Yuuri’s shoulder. “We should probably clean this up.”

“And call Georgi,” Yuuri says as they pull reluctantly apart. “We should have listened to him sooner. If we had then I might not have been… and you… you wouldn’t have had to…” 

His gaze flits over Victor’s bruised and bloody face one more, heartbreak written clearly across his pale and worn features as he runs a thumb almost unconsciously over Victor’s split lip. 

Yuuri’s guilty expression hurts Victor more than any of his injuries, and he takes the opportunity to lean in to press a light, comforting kiss to his husband’s palm. “It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.” 

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri says again. “I wish I could have done someth-” Yuuri is cut off as Victor puts a finger to his lips.

“No more apologizing.” His voice is gentle, but firm. "You fought off a demon all by yourself, Yuuri. Twice. You don't have anything to apologize for."

"But what if it comes back?" Yuuri whispers, the fear wrenched from the deepest parts of him as his eyes fill with tears once more. "What if it tries to hurt you again?"

A chill comes over Victor at the thought. The image of Yuuri's eyes turning black again, his features harsh and cruel, his very will torn from him by an unknown supernatural force… the thought of him going through that again is too much to bear. 

"If that happens…” Victor grips Yuuri’s hands tight. “We fight it again. And again. And as many times as it takes until they realize that we’re stronger than them.” 

Yuuri stares at him for a moment, eyes wide and mouth agape. In his eyes, those beautiful brown eyes, Victor sees the pain, the fear, the exhaustion plain as day. But he sees something else there, too, rising to the surface. A fierce protectiveness, the steely resolve to face down a thousand demons if it means keeping his beloved safe. 

“Okay.” Yuuri whispers, with a jerky nod. “Okay.” He grips Victor’s hands in turn, leaning in to press their foreheads together. “I love you so much, Vitya.”

Victor smiles, comforted as much by the words as Yuuri’s warmth against him. “I love you, too.” 

All they can do is this - hold on to each other, take strength from each other, love each other, and believe that that love burns bright enough to drive away the darkest spirits. If this is all they can do, Victor thinks, it’s enough. 

It has to be enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> Giant thanks to the lovely mypoorfaves for the advice and for putting up with me in crisis mode working on this dumb thing. You are the actual literal best <3


End file.
